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Baby sign language is a kind of sign language which is used when one wants to communicate with toddlers or infants. It is used since infants or toddlers might not be able to communicate well since they might not be able to speak as they might lack ability to do so.
Speech develops in a toddler only one the co ordination of the lips, breath, tongue and the vocal cords improve. Hence to make communication easy for them the baby sign language was invented which is widely used now. It is seen that babies often find it difficult to communicate and might end up in him. her throwing tantrums that could have been avoided if the child had known the Baby sign language.
It is believed that even though they might not be able to co ordinate well enough to produce speech but they have good hand-eye co ordination. They can be taught baby language and hence might be able to show signs like sleep, eat, more, hug, play, cookie, teddy bear, drink, sleepy etc.The Baby Sign Language is broadly classified into two categories that is the Need based Sign Language and the Highly motivation signs. The need based signs cover all the things that come under the basic needs of a baby.
For instance words like food, drink, sleepy.hot, cold, change me etc come under the Need based signs. The word drink or thirsty can be shown by mimicking drinking out of a glass or a bottle. You could use a similar motion for eating as well, or also by rubbing the stomach. The highly motivating signs include words like toy, friend, doggy etc.
You can also help the child's vocabulary to grow by showing them signs for various items. There also exists something called the home based baby sign language. The home based sign language is basically developed between the infant and the parents or the caregivers. Besides this there is something called the Indigenous sign language where the vocabulary or the grammar used in a part of some already existing Indigenous sign languages of that particular region.
For instance people who belong to Australia might want to use the Auslan( more commonly known as the Australian Sign Language) or in America the American sign language which is also known as ASL is most commonly used and in Mexico the Mexican sign language (also known as "lengua de seas mexicana", "Lenguaje de Signos Mexicano" or LSM).This would imply using a standard vocabulary which would also allow people who are not just family members to communicate with the toddler. This way even as the child grows older he/she can continue studying the indigenous sign language.
The Baby sign language was initially developed in the United States of America. It was developed by Linda Acredolo, a professor of psychology at the University of California which is in Davis and by Susan Goodwyn who is also a professor emeritus of psychology at the California State University. They had started research on this subject in the year 1982.In the year 1985 they produced an article in Human development. The article was titled "Symbolic gesturing in language development: A case study."
